THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION ON NURSING HOME SOCIAL WORKERS PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND RESILIENCE

Abstract The complexities of social workers’ behavioral integration of personal spirituality within nursing homes, where a highly regulated, stressful environment marginalizes professional identity and challenges retention, remains largely unexplored and untested. The paucity of data limits the profession’s commitment to resourcing current and future practitioners with evidence-informed integration of spirituality with professional identity, ethical practice, and continuation in the role. This qualitative study addresses this gap by interviewing and analyzing narratives authored by experienced NHSWs who daily navigate the spirituality-at-work opportunity and challenge. Researchers collected a purposive sample of licensed NHSWs working within these settings and consenting to participate. All respondents held a social work license at the baccalaureate or master’s level (LBSW, LMSW, or LCSW) and were employed as a social worker full time for an average of 3.2 years in their current nursing facility and their overall experience in nursing facility social work averaged 8.8 years, with a range of 2 to 30 years’ experience. Twenty NHSWs were interviewed and 80% (n=16) associated their role, at some level, with a higher power (God, Christ, Holy Spirit, unnamed) and religious beliefs and practices. Fifteen percent (n=3) stated faith and religious ideology had no impact or was irrelevant for practice, and one (5%) did not respond. It became clear that religion, spirituality, and faith practices matter for a majority of the respondents in how they view and enact their practice.

George, British Columbia,Canada,2. University of British Columbia,Vancouver,British Columbia,Canada,3. Thompson Rivers University,Kamloops,British Columbia,Canada The emergence of ChatGPT highlights the potential of AI applications used in nursing care.AI in the form of machine learning or deep learning provides the ability to scan through clinical data using various algorithms to predict a clinical outcome for a client/patient and influencing clinical decisions.Registered nurses (RNs) are accountable for their decisions when caring for older adults receiving geriatric services and supports.Therefore, we conducted an online survey online cross-sectional survey from April to July 2023 to evaluate community focused RNs knowledge and awareness of the use of AI within their decision-making process.233 RNs completed the survey.RNs were aware of AI in healthcare (56.7%) and in nursing (30.9%) with less familiarity with machine learning (ML) in geriatric nursing (16.3%).Source of knowledge of AI and ML came from informal sources such as media and social media and from family and friends whereas formal sources were less common.RNs agreed (69.8%) that automated outcomes to help them prioritize older adult clients and target services would be useful.However, 77.9% were concerned with who would be responsible if AI offered incorrect recommendations.Most RNs (90.2%) identified they should have the competency of how AI can improve processes and outcomes.RNs should be consulted if AI had implications on geriatric practice.Future phases of this research will examine how RNs can be better involved in AI that influences their practice and how they might be better prepared to evaluate AI outputs as part of their decision-making process.
Abstract citation ID: igad104.3649The complexities of social workers' behavioral integration of personal spirituality within nursing homes, where a highly regulated, stressful environment marginalizes professional identity and challenges retention, remains largely unexplored and untested.The paucity of data limits the profession's commitment to resourcing current and future practitioners with evidence-informed integration of spirituality with professional identity, ethical practice, and continuation in the role.This qualitative study addresses this gap by interviewing and analyzing narratives authored by experienced NHSWs who daily navigate the spirituality-at-work opportunity and challenge.Researchers collected a purposive sample of licensed NHSWs working within these settings and consenting to participate.All respondents held a social work license at the baccalaureate or master's level (LBSW, LMSW, or LCSW) and were employed as a social worker full time for an average of 3.2 years in their current nursing facility and their overall experience in nursing facility social work averaged 8.8 years, with a range of 2 to 30 years' experience.Twenty NHSWs were interviewed and 80% (n=16) associated their role, at some level, with a higher power (God, Christ, Holy Spirit, unnamed) and religious beliefs and practices.Fifteen percent (n=3) stated faith and religious ideology had no impact or was irrelevant for practice, and one (5%) did not respond.It became clear that religion, spirituality, and faith practices matter for a majority of the respondents in how they view and enact their practice.

THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION ON NURSING HOME SOCIAL WORKERS PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND RESILIENCE
Abstract citation ID: igad104.3650

THE MEDIATION EFFECT OF SOCIAL SUPPORT BETWEEN DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND LONELINESS IN OLDER ADULTS WITH DIABETES Emma Cho, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between depressive symptoms and loneliness in older adults with diabetes, and to explore the mediating role of social support in this association.This study was developed as a secondary data analysis using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project in the USA.The sample consisted of 407 older adults aged 50 to 93 years (mean = 64.76,SD=9.03; 50.9% male; 60% married and white).A multiitem survey questionnaire was used to assess loneliness, social support, and depressive symptoms.Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between depressive symptoms, social support, and loneliness; the macro PROCESS on SPSS was used to examine the mediating effects of social support on the association between depressive symptoms and loneliness.Despite the significant correlation between depressive symptoms and social support, social support and loneliness, and depressive symptoms and loneliness, social support did not mediate the influence of depressive symptoms on loneliness.The results of this study support the need for increased awareness of depressive symptoms in older adults with diabetes.Depressive symptoms should be treated to alleviate loneliness, and more research is needed to explore how other social factors influence the relationship between depressive symptoms and loneliness, thereby preventing a synergistic effect of depressive symptoms and loneliness.Bloomington,Indiana,United States,3. Korea International School Jeju,Seogwipo,Jeju,Republic of Korea,4. Silvia Health,Seoul,Republic of Korea This study pilot tested the efficacy of a mobile-based multidomain application, Silvia Program, on cognitive functioning of residents in assisted living facilities (ALFs).After a 12-week randomized pilot trial using a two-group pretestposttest design (Silvia group vs. usual care group), we assessed the cognitive functioning using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).Results are that the total MoCA scores of the Silvia group showed significant improvement while the total scores of the control group declined.The present study provides suggestive evidence for an overall positive effect of the use of the Silvia Program on the cognitive functioning among residents in ALFs.

THE POTENTIAL OF MULTIDOMAIN MOBILE PROGRAMS IN SUPPORTING COGNITIVE HEALTH OF SENIORS IN RESIDENTIAL FACILITIES Junhyoung
Kim 1 , Yongseop Kim 2 , Jeff Cho 3 , Myungjin Ko 4 , and Marcia Ory 1 , 1.Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States, 2. Indiana University,